


Stealing Snowflakes

by ThestralsNest



Category: Descendants (2015), The Isle of the Lost - Melissa de la Cruz
Genre: Christmas Fluff, Jaylos centric with mention of other pairings, M/M, Mostly just fluff for the sake of my sanity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-24
Updated: 2015-12-24
Packaged: 2018-05-09 01:51:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,839
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5520971
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThestralsNest/pseuds/ThestralsNest
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jay scanned the crowd one more time, looking for dyed blond hair and any flash of black, white or red he could find. In traditional Carlos fashion, he had probably escaped and gone to hide somewhere within the first hour of festivities. -- Winter fluff.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stealing Snowflakes

**Author's Note:**

> Just a short one-shot full of fluff that I wrote at 5am while I'm still incredibly jet-lagged. Enjoy!

The Christmas ball was in full swing when Jay decided that he had had enough of dancing and booming music that made his blood pulse in his temples. Sure, he had gotten a few giggly girls to kiss him on the cheek under conveniently placed mistletoe and he was quite smug about the number, but he wasn’t looking for more skirts to chase. It had been fun, but it was getting old already. 

He found Mal by the punch table and greeted her with a smile. 

She merely rolled her eyes at his cheerful demeanour. “This is lame.” 

“You’ve never been one for parties.” Jay shrugged with a grin. “Where’s Carlos?”

“Dunno.” She mumbled, grabbing her drink with more vehemence that was strictly needed. Her eyes were on someone on the dancefloor but Jay couldn’t pinpoint who it was. There were too many people moving wildly to distinguish any face.

She’d steered clear of anyone who looked like they were going to ask her for a dance. Ben had been busy with official Kingdom ball affairs and while she was fine with dancing with him –and with Evie to some extent—she was still positively scared that someone else would come and pull her to the dancefloor. 

As it turned out, her fear was warranted when Lonnie and Jane made their way out of the crowd, both of them giggling wildly. Mal rolled her eyes, assuming they were coming over to enjoy some fruity punch that wasn’t even spiked –Jay had tried it earlier. The two girls didn’t go near the punch table however. Instead, they walked up to Mal and Jay, tittering. 

“Come dance with us you guys!” Lonnie exclaimed, grabbing one of Mal’s hand and one of Jay’s.

Mal looked at him in horror. Jay smirked. 

“I. I’m okay.” She said, taking her hand back and slipping it behind her back, out of reach.

“Aww, that’s too bad!” Lonnie’s face saddened, but she quickly turned to Jay with renewed joy. “What about you, Jay?” 

He twisted his arm so his hand was under Lonnie’s, holding it with its palm facing down so he could give a courteous kiss on top of it. She flushed red and stared at him. 

“Sorry, babe. I have someone to find.” He let her hand fall limply from his. “Maybe later,” He added with a wink. Lonnie coughed while Jane, who’d been standing at the side, forgotten, scowled at him. Mal nudged him in the ribs and he stepped back to push her forward with a hand on the small of her back. “But Mal’s actually a great dancer. She’s just shy, you should show her how it’s done.” 

Lonnie’s eyes brightened and her gaze fell back on the purple-haired girl who was waving her hands to dismiss Jay’s words. “No, no. I just. I really don’t dance and I’m.” 

“Come on Mal, it’ll be fun!” Jane encouraged, grasped Mal’s arm to tug her along. She tried to break by dragging her feet along, but her high heels didn’t permit it. Unlike her combat boot that had adherence to the floor, they just made her wobble on her legs. Jay almost felt bad for her. 

“I think I’mma head back.” He yelled after them, waving cheekily. “Have fun!” 

“Go to Hell,” She mouthed at him as the two girls forcefully hauled her forward. 

He saluted her and she disappeared in the crowd. 

Jay looked at the party with a mix of fascination and thoughtfulness. He scanned the crowd one more time, looking for dyed blond hair and any flash of black, white or red he could find. In traditional Carlos fashion, he had probably escaped and gone to hide somewhere within the first hour of festivities. Jay shrugged and walked away from the epicentre of the party and towards one of the tall, well-carved doors he’d passed through earlier.

The Beast Castle was surprisingly easy to navigate despite its size and he was out the door, on the way back to Auradon Prep in less than 5 minutes. He’d gotten his jacket from the coat check mice and marvelled at the intricate mechanism they’d created to move the coats out of the racks. He made a mental note to talk about the cloakroom to Carlos later, the boy-genius would probably love to hear about it if he hadn’t seen it himself. 

It was snowing softly when he walked down the drawbridge. He sniffled in the cold air and wrapped the jacket tighter around himself, crossing his arm to keep the warmth in. There was a glistening blanket of snow that shone in the moonlight. 

He was still on the castle grounds when he spotted a familiar figure sitting in the snow in the fancy garden between topiaries of King Beast and Queen Belle. He smiled, walking slowly and deliberately into the garden. Carlos was sitting on the ground, his mouth wide open with his tongue sticking out while his eyes were darting around the sky. 

“What are you doing there champ?” Jay asked with a chuckle, sitting down in the snow next to his friend. It was cold and wet. 

Carlos didn’t stop his antics but replied; “Ca’hin’ shnowh’lake.” 

Jay raised an eyebrow at him and looked up at the gentle snow falling down on them. He opened his mouth and started to angle it to catch the snowflakes falling. It was an odd, dizzying feeling to try and catch them as they twirled down. He could feel them melt into cold water prickling his tongue. 

“Why ah’ you outshide?” Carlos asked, eyes still focused on the white particles fluttering down. 

“Pahty got boh’ing.” He answered as best as he could. “Was looking for you,” He added, closing his mouth to glance at Carlos still hard at work at catching as many snowflakes as he could. 

“Whaa?” 

Jay gulped down the cold water accumulated on his tongue. “You’re more fun.” 

Carlos stopped his snowflake hunt to look at him with a smile. He nodded like he was giving his permission that it was okay to think he was more fun than the ball. They were silent, both now looking up at sky and blinking away at the snow. 

“Did we have snow like that on the Isle?” The younger boy wondered. “I can’t remember.”

Jay hummed thoughtfully. “There was snow.” He watched a snowflake settle on the leather sleeve of his jacket. “More liquid-y and not as pretty. Remember the sleet?” 

“Oh, yeah.”

Carlos seemed content with the answer, although a kind of sadness was setting in his eyes as it did every time the Isle was brought up in conversations. It always brought a dull pain in Jay’s stomach to see his friend pull this kind of downcast expression. He looked inconsolable, and in many ways, he probably was. 

“So, how many snowflakes did you get?” Jay asked curiously, hoping to change the subject. 

The other perked up, eyes brightening in an instant. “Like a hundred!” Carlos said. He sounded very proud. 

Jay chuckled. “That’s a lot.” 

“Might be more! I didn’t really keep track.” He opened his mouth again. “Mowe z’an you fow sure.” He said, lapping at the air like a dog.

“More than me?” Jay repeated amusedly. 

“Yeah! You didn’t even get 10.” Carlos teased, pulling at the collar of his jacket smugly. “You’re good at Tourney, right? Well, I’m good at this.”

Jay laughed. It felt like a challenge, but there was no way he was going to stick around with his mouth open at the sky for hours, counting snowflakes. Now, maybe if the garden didn’t look so magical, if Carlos wasn’t so incredibly cute, and if he hadn’t been entertaining a crush on his younger friend for months, he could have resisted the idea that hit him. But as it was, it was too easy to catch Carlos’ attention with a tug on his arm and lean forward to connect their lips. The mouth he met opened as the other gasped in surprise and Jay took the opportunity to swipe his tongue against Carlos’ once. 

“All mine now.” He said jokingly as he pulled back. Carlos was staring at him, confused and wide-eyed. Jay's heart had undeniably sped up, but he wasn’t going to give anyone the satisfaction of knowing just how apprehensive of the response he was. Sure it had felt like a fun thing to do, a joke, a prank, but now that he had the taste of Carlos’ mouth on his tongue, he felt like he had just unearthed feelings he only ever dug up late at night when he was sure his roommate was asleep. 

Carlos was stunned into silence, looking at Jay like he’d just adorned his mother’s entire fur wardrobe all at once. There seemed to be a million thoughts flashing by in his dark eyes. He gulped and looked down timidly only to look up again with his bottom lip curled into a childish pout. 

“Give ‘em back!” Carlos said in what Jay hoped was mock annoyance. “Why do you always have to have what I have?” 

Jay smirked teasingly and shrugged. “’Cause you have it.”

“That’s so unfair.” Carlos mumbled. “Come on give them back!” He said, launching at Jay who shoved him, still laughing. They wrestled for a bit, messing the snow around them until the grass was showing and dirt was overturned and mixing in with the fresh snow.

It took a while, but Jay eventually let Carlos straddle his stomach and slam him unto the ground. He knew he could easily move the other boy off, but he didn’t want to. This was more interesting, and nowhere near as nerve-wracking as he thought their first kiss would be. 

When Carlos finally kissed him to get back the virtual snowflakes he’d stolen, Jay slipped a hand at the back of his head, keeping him in place while he returned the kiss enthusiastically. He regretted it immediately as Carlos seemed to be taken aback and moved out of his grip as soon as it lessened. It was truly a weird tango they were dancing; half joking, half serious. Jay couldn’t tell which side he was. 

Carlos stared at him with strange suspicion in his eyes. Playfulness had faded to be replaced with a sort of seriousness that made him look graver and sort of upset. “Why are you kissing me like that?” 

Jay sat up and chuckled in lieu of an answer. Carlo had backed away considerably, leaving a trail in the snow and mud sticking to his black jeans. 

“Are you still joking around?” He asked, cocking his head to the side and squinting his eyes. 

“No.” Jay forced a laugh out again hoping to convince the other that he was still in control, that this was all part of a plan, despite how fast his mind was racing. “I’m not.” 

Carlos gave him a once-over, obviously unable to decide what to do with or think about Jay. “Then what are we doing?” 

There was a beat of silence, the sky still showering them with snow glittering in the soft garden lights. Jay didn’t move a muscle, thinking that any movement could easily spook Carlos away. 

“I don’t know what you’re doing. I thought it was pretty clear what I was doing.” He tried to sound nonchalant and relaxed, but there was a shaky edge to his voice that he couldn’t tame. 

“So what?” Carlos hunched his back forward and scooted closer, playing with the snow in front of him. “You like me enough to do that?” 

Jay stared at him intently. “I guess I do if I did it.” 

“I mean.” Carlos fixed his eyes up on a branch of Queen Belle’s topiary, avoiding direct eye contact. “On the Isle, kissing is just. You know, it’s just fun. But here it’s different…it’s serious.”

“Yeah.” Jay nodded, still watching Carlos who refused to look his way.

“So which one is it?”

Jay sighed and while it might have sounded contemptible, he didn’t mean it to be. He felt guilt-stricken, not sure if he was able to have this kind of talk when he’d just acted out of sheer impulse, when he couldn’t help it after he saw how cute Carlos was while playing in the snow. He let his back fall on the ground. 

“I don’t know.” He murmured to the darkness. “Serious? I think? It’s weird.” He rubbed at his face.

He heard ruffling and, suddenly, Carlos’ face popped into his line of vision. He was kneeling next to him, head hovering over Jay’s. 

“Really?” He asked, eyes hopeful. 

“Why not? You’re cute and funny and smart so…” Jay said, making Carlos’ face burn up with a particular kind of embarrassment.

“So?” 

Jay ran his words over in his mind, unwilling to spoil everything now with a wrong word. He took in a sharp breath. “It’s different from the others.” He said quickly. “You’re not just anyone. You’re Carlos. I don’t want to play around with you, I mean, I want to have fun but. I. I definitely don’t want you to...cry or something, because of me. I don’t wanna screw it up.” 

There was a moment of silence. Carlos took some time to process the words. Jay felt self-conscious under his stare. “You…You like me then?” 

“I think I told you that already.” He snorted, annoyed at the blush flaring up from his neck. 

“You didn’t say it. You just agreed.” Carlos pointed out. 

“Same difference.” He shrugged. It was his turn to look away awkwardly. “You know what I mean.”

The younger boy’s laughter rang around them. “I like you too, you know.”

Jay cleared his throat, supressing a smile. “That’s…good.”

Carlos was looking at him thoughtfully. “And just FYI, I don’t think you will.” He said, continuing when Jay only frowned up at him. “Screw it up. I don’t think you’ll screw it up.”

“Will?” Jay lifted himself up on his forearms, stopping when Carlos didn’t move and their head almost bumped. “As in, future?” 

“If you want to.” Carlos bit his bottom lip, “You dated before. I didn’t.” He said with a nervous giggle. “I have no clue what to say right now.” 

“I do want to.” Jay said, although the way his voice came out all eager and squeaky made him cringe. “I do.” He repeated more calmly. 

Carlos laughed heartily and sat back on his heels, a wide and mirthful grin on his face. “Me too.” He pulled himself and brushed snow off his clothes. “Ugh. It’s sticking to my legs.” 

Jay got up as well and started dusting the snow off his jacket, accepting the fact that his trousers were going to be damp. He didn’t really care for the fancy, tailored suit Ben and Chad had insisted on making him wear anyway. 

“Did you want to go back to the party?” Carlos asked, leaning in to card his fingers through Jay’s hair and remove the snow that had stuck to it. 

“Nah.” He answered, catching the hand in his hair to lace their fingers. “Let’s go back. Evie’s with Doug, Ben’s busy and Mal’s mad at me anyway.” 

Carlos looked up from their linked hands to give him a funny look. “Mad at you, why?” 

“I made her dance with Lonnie and Jane.” He said casually, silently proud. “She didn’t seem all too happy with it.” 

The sweet chortle he got was worth whatever form of revenge scheme Mal had in store for him. They started walking out of the garden, leaving the snow disturbed and messy next to the topiaries and bushes. Jay figured it’d be covered by a fresh white blanket soon enough. 

Carlos’ hand was trembling in his and he couldn’t tell if it was because of the cold or because he was anxious about the whole episode. Jay had to admit that it was indeed sudden and it felt unreal. He couldn’t believe that his impulsiveness had worked out for the best this time around, it usually only managed to shoot him in the foot. He squeezed Carlos’ fingers, as if to make sure that he was still holding them. He smiled. This was good. This made him happy. 

“Have you seen the cloakroom?” He said, hoping to dissipate whatever tension the air held around them with the pretense of small talk. 

Carlos swung their arms like a child, his free hand gesturing animatedly. “The mice and the machines? Awesome right?” He answered excitedly. “I mean, it’s cool enough that _mice_ are checking the coats, but that they have a machine like that and powered by water, too! It’s incredible. Maybe if they added a wheel next to the third hook, they could provide faster service. Not that it’s not already super fast but I’m just saying. ” 

And as Carlos started babbling about technologies and mice and coats, Jay thought that, no matter what this developed into, it was amazing what stealing a few snowflakes could lead to.


End file.
